Bittersweet Raspberries
by EraTomo
Summary: What happens when the most important person to Neji dies, protecting their love? NejixTenten Oneshot


I was listening to 'The Scientist' and got this idea...

WARNING: Death, Attempted Suicide, and Sad Events made me rate this story PG-13. BEWARE!

P.S: I like all the Naruto characters, so I wasn't happy to make the person die. In fact I was mad at myself, but I did it anyways.

* * *

Neji sat in his bathroom. His locked bathroom, a kunai in his hand. Fists pounded the door.

"Neji-niisan, don't do this!"

"Neji! Get out now!"

They shouldn't have taught him that unbreakable defense jutsu...

"Neji-niisan, please think about this! Tenten wouldn't... she would never let you did this."

"TENTEN ISN'T HERE RIGHT NOW!" He yelled through his tears. Yes, Neji was crying.

"She died in combat, Neji! IT WAS HONORABLE!" Hanabi screamed.

"Then why did she leave me?" He asked in a small voice. He hung his head a bit, remembering.

"Neji! Neji, why?" Tenten cried, tears streaming down her face. "Why are you doing this? Haven't you figured... by now... that I love you?" She said quietly.

"Hn..." The tears ran faster.

"The least you could do... for me..."

"I...can't."

"Even if you don't like me!"

"Don't you see by now, Tenten? We can't be together... no matter what."

"Can't you cancel the marriage?"

"I-I can't without murdering her..."

"Neji... at least... just once..."

"Tenten..." The tears continued streaming, but now she was smiling bitterly.

"Never mind," She said, starting to turn. He grabbed her arm, hard. "Ow..." she mumbled, and was pulled into a rough kiss. They parted, and she cried out,

"Can't you just say it? Just once?"

"Thank you." The bitter smile remained.

"Thank you too..." She said, running off.

Neji gritted his teeth. He let her go alone, and it ended in...

"TENTEN-SAN! DON'T DO THIS!"

"I don't care anymore."

A gasp rippled through the audience as kunai went flying, and a lone bride screamed.

"I want to be with Neji!" She said desperately. ANBU were coming...

"Tenten!" Neji yelled. She looked at him.

"Just once..." She said, starting to tear up. "Please... just... say it... just say it!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face, preoccupied with many feelings inside of her, so preoccupied that she didn't notice the kunai flying for her... from the bride's father. Neji pushed her out of the way in time, but not fast enough to avoid the next attack.

"DIE, WENCH!" He yelled, as Tenten, blinded through tears, was run clean though with a katana, tears still streaming down her face, which was twisted in pain.

He knew that most of the pain was brought by him.

"Tenten! Tenten, don't go..." He mumbled to her as he crawled slowly, numbly towards her. The bride's father took the katana and withdrew it from her body, knocking it off to the side.

"It's a chakra blade, with the same kind of abilities as the Hyuuga's!" The bride's father said proudly, as if he had not just taken a life, merely put an item into a gallery. "She is surely gone from this world now!" He said.

Neji reached her body, took her hand. Her eyes had lost it's sparkle, staring emptily up into his face. Her hand had no pulse.

Hanabi was wrong. Not in battle, in betrayal. She had died in betrayal. He betrayed her.

He picked up the kunai, trying to decide, his heart or his throat? His heart would be better, he would feel the hurt and loss he did to her.

Tears still streaming, he remembered.

Tenten cart wheeling around happily, him up in a tree watching, smiling.

Tenten and him sparring, he always winning, she never giving up.

Tenten took him to her house, the shed she had with no others to live with... they'd hugged.

He and Tenten on various missions, covering each other's backs, protecting one another...

He should have...

He smiled bitterly through the tears. He never told her...

"I love you Tenten."

He plunged, and stopped barely a centimeter away. His hands were cold... ice... cold… her smell drifted to his nose... raspberries... he heard her giggle… he close his eyes. There she was, holding both of his hands, stopping the kunai.

"Silly, that's all you had to say." She smiled, and kissed his cheek. "I would've rather died to be with you than to die without you, anyways. And killing yourself isn't going to help!" She said happily. "Besides, I'm with you. I'm the noble weapons mistress of Konoha! I'll always be with you... if not in person, in your heart, and if that's not good enough, I mean, come on! Weapons Mistress! I'll be protecting, blessing, helping you with weapons... each time you pick up one, you better think of me! It's not something of death, a weapon... it's a beacon of hope." She winked, and vanished.

Her favorite weapons were the kunai and katana... she wouldn't let them take important lives, after all.

He smiled again, although not bitterly, and cried tears, only happy ones. He slowly lay on the floor. He didn't know why, he was comfortable there. The ground was soft with a rug. He breathed in. Raspberries. He would awaken tomorrow, from a dream about her. As far as he knew, she wasn't gone, merely... on a mission. He breathed in again. Raspberries. He knew, he didn't have anything that was raspberry scented in his bathroom, or with him. She was there. He breathed in again, and swore he heard a sigh, a bittersweet sigh.

A bittersweet sigh...

From a bittersweet raspberry.

* * *

Sorry for the whole cliché thing, but I mean, IT'S THE SCIENTIST! I had to, and the plot kept changing in the middle of the story so it was hard to write. For some reason I want to cry, but I'm not sad.

Bittersweet,

EraTomo


End file.
